Guest Opinion: A golden opportunity to improve transit

Friday

Aug 1, 2014 at 6:43 PMAug 1, 2014 at 7:38 PM

One year ago this week, the Legislature passed major transportation finance legislation. The package directed more funding to the MBTA, but for the first time in recent memory, it also placed a heavy emphasis on the state's regional transportation authorities (RTAs), which provide public transit service in areas outside of Greater Boston.

Mary Ebeling and Benjamin Forman

One year ago this week, the Legislature passed major transportation finance legislation. The package directed more funding to the MBTA, but for the first time in recent memory, it also placed a heavy emphasis on the state’s regional transportation authorities (RTAs), which provide public transit service in areas outside of Greater Boston.

Among the legislation’s many commonsense provisions, two stand out. First, the bill provided “forward funding” so that RTAs will no longer have to borrow to cover their operating expenses while they await the state’s annual reimbursement. Second, the legislation required each of these systems to complete a comprehensive service plan, demonstrating the need for new routes and higher frequency service and quantifying how much it would cost to support this growth.

Together with the Wisconsin-based Smart State Transportation Initiative, MassINC spent much of the past year examining best practices for completing these comprehensive service plans.

If done well, service plans can lead to short-term improvements for transit riders by revealing opportunities to redeploy existing resources more efficiently. In the long-term, these plans will provide a road map for much needed investment in the RTAs, which have long made do with inadequate funding.

A model service planning process includes strong outreach to current riders, potential riders, and organizational partners in the community, smart analysis of existing travel data, and coordination with regional growth strategies. The recently completed service plan by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) shows that, with sufficient resources and commitment, Massachusetts RTAs can make the most of this new planning requirement and deliver real value to their riders and their regional economies.

But our paper also identified several obstacles to performing successful service assessments. The current law calls for a single round of planning; ideally, transit agencies develop capacity to execute this process on a regular cycle every few years. And the current law amounts to an unfunded mandate. While the outsized PVTA had access to sufficient resources, smaller RTAs were forced to contract jointly with a very modest pot of funds. It remains to be seen whether the dollars available to them will be enough to accomplish the task at hand.

We hope that they are adequate because the stakes are high for these regional economies. RTAs that get workers to work make their regions more competitive. RTAs also help residents struggling to reach the middle class. For many families, reliable public transportation is the difference between covering another car payment and setting aside money for a down payment on a home. For college students, public transportation that substitutes for a car payment means a better chance at keeping up with tuition, staying in school, and completing a degree.

By requiring RTAs to plan ahead, the Legislature is providing them an opportunity to show what they could do with additional resources. Now it’s up to the RTAs to deliver — and to civic leaders in their communities to support — a robust and rigorous process.

Mary Ebeling is a transportation policy analyst for the State Smart Transportation Initiative at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. Benjamin Forman is research director at MassINC. They are co-authors of the new report “Going for Growth: Enhancing the Economic Impact of Public Transit in Gateway Cities with Comprehensive Service Planning.”